Ireland’s official national curriculum body has encouraged teachers to study “crossdressing” for “erotic enjoyment,” “drag,” “gender queer” and “gender-fluid” identities as part of an “SPHE and RSE toolkit” for primary schools.
Teachers were also discouraged from using the phrase “boys and girls,” and were told instead to seek a more gender neutral alternative.
The revelation came from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), which is a sub-branch of the Department of Education.
📢Minister @NormaFoleyTD1 has signed a Statutory Instrument, updating the membership of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to include the President of the Irish Second Level Students’ Union (ISSU).@issu4u @NCCAie
For more 👉https://t.co/Z5b1MvTsJp pic.twitter.com/cROGq9ciqW
— Department of Education (@Education_Ire) April 28, 2022
In two documents entitled “An inclusive approach to SPHE/RSE – LGBTI+ identities” and “Using inclusive and respectful language,” the NCCA outlines how teachers should conduct such classes:
The documents encourage teachers to “use inclusive language,” including urging students to use each others’ preferred pronouns.
“You may also need to be aware of your own use of language,” it says.
“Instead of calling the children to attention with “boys and girls …” get their attention in different ways.”
The document also advises teachers to use “picture books” to teach children about gender identity:
Under “Further Reading,” a list of resources is included for teachers, including one on “Helpful terms and phrases” from the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI).
This links to a glossary of LGBT phrases which teachers should study for classes, including, but not limited to: “crossdresser,” “demigender,” “gender fluid,” “bigender,” “multigender,” “agender,” “gender queer,” “gender neutral,” “gender variant,” and many more.
The “Further Reading” page also includes a link to a resource by LGBT Ireland, which features a section on “crossdressing” for “erotic enjoyment” and “drag”:
Notably, this link uses the word “transvestite,” although the previous TENI link describes this as an “offensive” and “outdated” term.
The LGBT Ireland link also describes “non-binary” gender, saying “Some people identify as having a non-binary gender identity. These people do not identify as either a man or a woman.” It also encourages the use of “ze/zir” pronouns instead of “he/him” or “she/her.”
The page linked by the teacher’s resources features a link to “a more extensive list of different gender” terms.
This list includes, among other things:
- “Ladyboy” identity
- “Doll” identity, which it describes as “people who dress up as plastic dolls, usually including a rubber mask”
- A “nibling” – a “gender-neutral” way of saying “sibling”
- “Two-Spirit”
- “Strap On”
..and many more.
One LGBT Ireland document linked by NCCA describes the “gender fluid” identity, saying:
It also adds that children studied “were strongly gender non-conforming from the time they could communicate” – i.e. they were transgender from the time they were babies or toddlers.
The original NCCA teacher’s documents urge educators to avoid “hetero-normative” or “cis-normative” phrases in Irish classrooms, adding:
Furthermore, it says that “all lessons” should help to “normalise” LGBTI+ identities “throughout the curriculum”:
The revelation comes a week after Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced a new national strategy against “gender-based violence,” including teaching LGBTQI+ issues and sexual consent to primary school students.
McEntee seeks LGBTQI+ education at primary level as crime surges
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